Soros Justice Fellowships

Margaret Love’s fellowship project concerns the means by which criminal offenders may gain relief from the collateral consequences of conviction, which in recent years have become more varied and more severe. There is reason for concern that this web of “invisible punishment” may be encouraging the development of a permanently stigmatized and marginalized class of ex-offenders, who cannot support themselves in the free community and consequently return to prison again and again. The absence of an accessible and reliable process for restoring lost rights and opportunities discourages offender reentry and reintegration. The project will produce a book-length study of state and federal restoration mechanisms, including an in-depth look at relatively effective mechanisms in a few selected jurisdictions. It will develop a “best practices” guide for use by reformers, and a website for communicating the project’s findings and recommendations. It will lay the groundwork for a national law reform effort that will advocate for revisions in state and federal law to limit and rationalize collateral penalties, and encourage states and the federal government to come to grips with the long-term implications of excluding people with criminal convictions from many benefits and opportunities of civil society. Ms. Love has written extensively on the loss and restoration of rights after conviction, including “Starting Over with a Clean Slate: In Praise of a Forgotten Section of the Model Penal Code,” 30 Fordham Urban Law Review 101 (2003)(forthcoming).

Washington, D.C. |